Lupita Nyong’o is a Subtle Delight for The Hollywood Reporter’s Latest Issue

The 34-year-old Oscar winner spoke to the magazine about why she chose to speak out about Harvey Weinstein, her Insecurities and also on the importance of the movie Black Panther.

See excerpts below:

On why she spoke up aboutWeinstein: “I felt uncomfortable in my silence, and I wanted to liberate myself from it and contribute to the discussion. That was just what I felt I needed to do, quite viscerally. I couldn’t sleep. I needed to get it out … I had to talk to [my mother] about it because it was something that we hadn’t talked about. She was really moved and very supportive.”

On Politics: I am very emotional about politics in a way that makes it hard for me to articulate things in a rational fashion.

On her dad being exiled: When I was growing up, I wasn’t aware of it. My parents wouldn’t tell us what was going on when he was being jailed. They protected us from that — obviously for our own good, to try to keep a semblance of normalcy in a very abnormal situation, but also to ensure that we were not at risk. The more we knew, the more danger we would be in. I remember staying at home with the curtains drawn. And my father [who was detained] had all these papers he had written, and we were burning them. I was 4.

On her insecurities: “There is a part of me that will always feel unattractive … That’s OK because it will keep me grounded. I don’t need to be so full of myself that I feel I am without flaw. I can feel beautiful and imperfect at the same time. I have a healthy relationship with my aesthetic insecurities.”

On the importance of Black Panther: “On the importance of Black Panther: “We were creating an aspirational world where an African people are in charge of their own destiny. And that really appealed to me and had the little girl inside me jumping for joy. To just have African people, black people, at the centre of that narrative is so exciting.”